KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Remember when it was fashionable to trash Rashard Mendenhall, to snark on his fumbling, riff on his evident indecision, bewail his questionable status as a force for good on an offense laced with All-Pros and Super Bowl MVPs?
Well there's good news: Rashard Mendenhall's progression might have made him the best player on the field yesterday. Too bad the rest of the organization blew past him in the opposite direction.
Losing to the Kansas City Chiefs probably isn't the worst thing you can do in this league, but its degree of difficulty might suggest otherwise. Until yesterday, you should note, the Chiefs hadn't won twice in a row in more than two years.

"That is not us; it won't be us, but it was us today," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said in a postgame, fast-distilling a 27-24 overtime loss into an audio edition of US Magazine.

The head coach forcefully accepted full responsibility for the Steelers' second loss in eight days, but it was intriguing that some of the uniformed personnel seemed to indicate general support for that assessment.(He had no choice being that outside of that would have been BS)

"The coaches have to put us in a better position," said Hines Ward, as tenured a Steelers player as you can find and a man who had just wasted a 10-catch, 128-yard performance. "All of us have to look in the mirror, but we're all in this together; the coaches have to evaluate themselves as much was we do.":clap:

The first thing Tomlin and his offensive staff have to ask themselves is whether they trust Mendenhall to win a game for them, because even though he nearly had done exactly that without authorization in 60 minutes of 600 Steelers mistakes, they still utilized him in the overtime like he was Plan 9 From Outer Space. :evilshake: That shouldn't even be a question. If it wasn't for Mendenhall, we would be the same as last season...NO Running Game

Mind you, there would have been no overtime without Mendenhall.
Without Mendenhall, the Steelers lose in regulation.

It was Mendenhall, lest anyone forget, who had the cardio and the will to gallop more than 100 yards to chase down Chiefs linebacker Andy Studebaker at the Steelers' 8 late in the third quarter. Studebaker, making his first career start, had taken off on a coast-to-coast flight with a misdirected Ben Roethlisberger pass he had collected 2 yards deep in his own end zone. Mendenhall turned a certain touchdown into a Chiefs field goal, keeping the score tied at that point, then beat the coverage on a quick post to pull in an 8-yard touchdown pass that put the Steelers back on top, 24-17, with 8:35 remaining.

The blown coverages in the Steelers' secondary, part of a systems-wide breakdown from one end of this Missouri lawn to the other, resulted in a tying touchdown less than four minutes later. But in a game when Mendenhall would account for 116 yards rushing and receiving, the Steelers ran exactly one play for him over two possessions in the final 4:54.
"I felt like we had a good balance between running and passing," Mendenhall said diplomatically.
The imbalanced balance yesterday was 42 passes, 29 runs. The Steelers haven't had a rushing touchdown since Oct. 19, but it looked suspiciously like they were capable of one in the overtime. Mendenhall got 7 yards on a first-and-10, 7 yards on the next first-and-10, then 8 on second-and-10 to the Kansas City 35.

But........ on third-and-2, or just one first down from a winning field goal, offensive coordinator Bruce Arians sent Mewelde Moore wide right on a toss play. A stampede of red shirts put Moore on the grass for a loss of 3, leaving Tomlin no choice but to punt.
"I guess if they go zero -- and all-out blitz, we might have been able to pop one outside on them," said Charlie Batch, suddenly in the game after Roethlisberger took a knee to the head from linebacker Derrick Johnson. "But they didn't."
"We tried to get a perimeter run there," Tomlin said. "We were at the outer edge of field-goal range."
"I guess we thought we could catch them in something," Ward said. "I cracked down on the end, but it didn't work. If you run something else and it doesn't work, maybe it's fourth-and-1 and you give us a chance. But when you lose 3 yards, you have no choice but to punt. The play call is what it is; we have to execute it."
Four plays later, Chiefs wideout Chris Chambers took a short Matt Cassel pass 61 yards through a fractured Steelers secondary to the spot of the winning field goal.
That the Steelers lost on the road for the third time this year (more than all of last year) is one thing, but that they lost to a team that is 90 percent talent-free speaks poorly of their pridefulness.
"We'll get it corrected, whatever it is," shrugged nose tackle Casey Hampton. "We can still win 12 games, so it don't matter. Twelve will get you in [to the playoffs]."
I don't know if playing 'em six at a time will be very productive, but being a little more trustful of No. 34 certainly ought to be.

It's about damn friggin time the players say something here. This team is unified and prides itself on sticking together no matter what, but sooner or later something has to give. These players know the play calling is suspect at the most pivotal times in the game, but they have to execute what's called. Even if the play fails, they do what Arians tells them unless is in a no huddle or calls an audible.

Having said that, we have to be real careful with this situation, because it could spiral out of control in a heartbeat. They need to remain focused and stick together, but for God sakes the coaches have to take a long look in the mirror and realize this isn't always an execution thing from the players.

J.OTSTOTT

11-23-2009, 01:28 PM

And Casey says they will win 12 games lmao! Yeah ok buddy, how about you *******s show us something then. Stop coming out here giving us fans this bullshit!!! Last year I thought we would have the best D for the next couple years...What do I see this year??? A bunch of retards that cant tackle. You ****s NEED TO STOP TALKING ABOUT WHAT YOUR GOING TO DO AND DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DON'T CARE WHAT TEAM IT IS YOU GO OUT THERE AND SHOVE THE BALL DOWN THERE MOUTH!

Captcoolhand

11-23-2009, 01:37 PM

that's what makes a good team. you come to work, you do what you're told(no questions) and rely that you're doing it right. But when what you think is right doesn't work, you have to start looking for a solution.

75Steeler

11-23-2009, 01:40 PM

Thank God Hines said that. He has the ability to get the attention of players and coaches and he may be able to make a difference. Hines is respected among both groups.

:cursin:

BlitzburghRockCity

11-23-2009, 01:40 PM

That's not how this team does things, they aren't about taking a team and ripping their hearts out so they don't even think about mounting a comeback, anymore. That used to be us, imposing our will on the defense and marching down the field however we had too, but now we're this finesse, soft offense that can't get it done in crunch time.

Casey saying we can still win 12 games, uumm yeah if you played like you're supposed too, then yes. If the play calling was better at key moments of the game, then yes but as it stands right now you can't count on another win this year without realizing it's going to be an uphill battle.

SteelCityKid5

11-23-2009, 01:51 PM

Writing in capital letters really emphasizes your point.

jpele

11-23-2009, 06:16 PM

On the subject of coaches,I have to ask why Dick Lebeau get a free pass ?

Of the 248 passing yards Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel had against the Steelers, 173 of them came on Kansas City’s final four possessions, without their top receiver in the game.

Fourth quarter collapses are becoming a weekly occurrence. I think Dick is the best in the business,but the number of 10 points leads that were blown something need to be looked into.

Goodfrom55

11-23-2009, 09:17 PM

On the subject of coaches,I have to ask why Dick Lebeau get a free pass ?

Of the 248 passing yards Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel had against the Steelers, 173 of them came on Kansas City’s final four possessions, without their top receiver in the game.

Fourth quarter collapses are becoming a weekly occurrence. I think Dick is the best in the business,but the number of 10 points leads that were blown something need to be looked into.

It seemed as though he called off the dogs late in the game. HOWEVER, 2 blown plays accounted for 100 yards of the 248 total Cassel had passing - 1 in 4th quarter, 1 in OT. Question here, the DB's say they didn't get the coverage in on the 4th qtr bomb, why not call time out?